论古代的人类精神觉醒

Spiritual Awakening among Ancient People

公元前八至三世纪是人类精神的重大突破时期,各个文明出现了伟大的精神导师——古希腊有苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德,古印度有释迦牟尼,中国有孔子、老子等。他们提出的思想塑造了不同的文化传统,一直影响着人类的生活。德国哲学家雅斯贝斯将这一在人类精神文明的关键历史时期,称之为"轴心时代"。这个见解引起了学者们长期的思考和讨论。作为中国学者对雅斯贝斯的一次呼应,我国著名历史学家、北京师范大学刘家和教授撰《论古代的人类精神觉醒》一文,深入剖析古代印度、希腊和中国的人类精神觉醒的内涵、历史条件及其特点,并于1989年刊发在《北京师范大学学报》第5期,引起国内外学界的较大的反响,并为被多部论文集收录。近期,《孔学堂》杂志拜访刘先生时,他表示对人类自身存在的反省和精神的觉醒的研究是有趣的,二十多年过去了,新材料、新论点在国内外不断"面世",该论题的相关研究应该取得长足进展。征得刘家和先生的同意,本刊重载此文,以引起学界对该论题的进一步关注、思考和探讨。由于篇幅有限,现摘要刊载此文关于人类精神觉醒的特点探讨的部分。

Civilizations around the globe underwent significant spiritual breakthroughs from the eighth to the third century B.C., when great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sakyamuni, Confucius and Laozi appeared in ancient Greece, India and China. The intellectual traditions created by these leaders still influence the lives of presentday humans. Karl Jaspers, a philosopher from Germany, called this key historical period of human spiritual civilization the Axial Age. Responding to the Jaspersian coinage, Liu Jiahe, a prominent historian from Beijing Normal University, wrote an article 'Spiritual Awakening among Ancient People,' which was published in the Journal of Beijing Normal University, No. 5, 1989. In this article, Prof. Liu greatly discussed the connotations, historical conditions and characteristics of spiritual awakening in ancient India, Greece and China, which attracted worldwide attention of academic communities and was included in some proceedings.When interviewed by the editors of Confucian Academy, Prof. Liu said that the selfreflection and spiritual awakening of human beings still interested him. He added that research in this field had improved greatly in the past two decades owing to the emergence of new resources and ideas. With Prof. Liu's consent, the Confucian Academy republishes this article, hoping that it will reinvigorate academic discussion on this issue. Given the limited space, only the section on the characteristics of spiritual awakening is quoted here.